The Blues currently sit sixth on the ladder with four draws and five losses, while the Redbacks are in fourth having compiled a record of two wins, three draws and four losses. The two teams battled out a draw at North Dalton Park in Wollongong when they last played in the first half of the season.
The Blues group includes four changes to the squad named for last week’s loss to Victoria, with batters Ryan Hackney and Jason Sangha, along with speedsters Ben Dwarshuis and Ryan Hadley, coming into the group.
Blake MacDonald retains his place in the squad but is yet to play his first match for the Blues, while a spot in the starting Xl for Hadley would be his debut.
Kurtis Patterson, Blake Nikitaras and the retiring Trent Copeland were not selected, while Daniel Hughes (calf) and Liam Hatcher (foot) were unavailable due to injury.
Sean Abbott was also not considered as he heads to India on the weekend as part of Australia’s One Day squad.
With Patterson not selected, veteran former Test player Moises Henriques was appointed as captain of the side.
Interim Blues head coach Greg Shipperd said the changes to the team were form based.
“Our batting group have been inconsistent recently in delivering the runs necessary to establish the match positions we were looking for,” Shipperd said.
“We recognise it is a difficult decision to pass on your captain but we are confident Kurtis will regather and draw purpose from this call into the future.
“It was decided to support consistent and inform batters in this season’s last fixture, with the currency being runs.
“Ryan Hackney has been in the Blues team previously and has averaged over 65 in Second Xl this season.
“Blake MacDonald was in the squad with us for the last match, although he didn’t play. He has had a phenomenal summer, scoring consecutive Second Xl centuries for ACT / NSW Country as well as 177 not out against the touring West Indies side. This week in the match between NSW Metro and NSW/ACT Country he scored in the 90’s twice.
“He was given feedback earlier in the season and asked to score more runs and he has more than done that. Those two guys completely demanded selection.
“Similarly, Jason Sangha was left out of our last match and went away and scored plenty of runs in this week’s Second Xl match.
“Ryan Hadley is another who has put the form on the board with an extremely dominant Premier Cricket season.”
The match will begin at 11am (AEDT) on Tuesday, March 14 and be streamed live via cricket.com.au and Kayo.
NSW Marsh Sheffield Shield squad vs South Australia (March 14-17) for at Karen Rolton Oval: Ollie Davies, Ben Dwarshuis, Jack Edwards, Matthew Gilkes, Chris Green, Ryan Hackney, Ryan Hadley, Moises Henriques (c), Hayden Kerr, Blake MacDonald, Jason Sangha, Chris Tremain